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Troubleshooting

Problems roughly in order of how urgent they are during service.

Orders aren't reaching the kitchen

First, check whether the order exists at all. Open Admin → Orders. If it's there, the order was taken fine and this is a delivery to the kitchen problem. If it isn't, it's an ordering problem — skip to Customers can't order.

If the order exists:

  1. Check the dashboard for alerts. A HIGH alert about an order not reaching the kitchen names the problem directly.
  2. Check the kitchen display on the actual kitchen tablet. Often the order is there and the tablet went to sleep or lost wifi.
  3. Check the printer if you print tickets — see below.
  4. In the meantime, work from Admin → Orders on any device. Don't hold up food while debugging.

ForkLine retries automatically, so a brief blip usually resolves itself.

Receipts aren't printing

This has multiple distinct causes that all look identical, so work these in order rather than guessing.

  1. Is the printer powered and on the network? Check the cable and its status lights.
  2. Is there paper, and is the cover shut? Genuinely the most common cause.
  3. Does the printer show online? Go to Settings → Printer. If the indicator isn't green, the printer isn't checking in — it's a connection problem, not a ForkLine one.
  4. Send a test print from Settings → Printer.
  5. Re-check the printer's Server URL. This is device-side configuration ForkLine cannot see or fix. If the printer was replaced, reset, or moved, it needs pointing at ForkLine again — see Receipt Printer Setup.
  6. Restart the printer. Fixes more than it should.

Only one of two copies printed. Check paper and the copy count in Receipt Layout.

Receipts print but look wrong — sizing or alignment. See Receipt Layout.

The cash drawer won't open

Check the cable orientation first. The RJ12 cable's ends are labelled and it isn't symmetrical.

The trap: a reversed cable still reports the drawer's open/closed state correctly, so the printer looks like it can "see" the drawer. That is not proof the cable is right.

Then check the drawer is unlocked, and that the printer prints at all — no printer, no drawer. Full detail in Cash Drawer.

Payments are failing

One customer's card declined. That's between them and their bank. Ask for another card.

Every card is declining. Check Settings → Payments shows your Stripe account fully set up. If it says onboarding is incomplete, Stripe is waiting on something — see Setting Up Stripe Payments.

The card reader isn't responding. Confirm it's powered and on the same network. Restart it, then re-pair from Settings → Payments if needed.

A reader payment is stuck. Check the reader screen — it may be waiting on the customer. Stuck payments raise a dashboard alert. Don't charge again until you've confirmed the first one didn't go through; check the order before retrying.

The reader never asks for a tip. You almost certainly don't have exactly three tip presets. See Tipping.

Customers can't order

  1. Is Accept online orders on? The most common cause by far, usually switched off during a rush and never switched back.
  2. Are you within your hours? Check the day's intervals, and that your timezone is right under Settings → Restaurant.
  3. Has the kitchen cutoff passed? Orders stop before closing time.
  4. Is the item available? Check it isn't marked unavailable or in a hidden category — see Managing Your Menu.
  5. Open your ordering page yourself, signed out, on cellular data. You'll see exactly what they see.

Payouts haven't arrived

If this is your first payout, it's almost certainly normal — Stripe holds the first one about 7–14 days on every new account.

Otherwise, the usual cause is Stripe needing more information. Check the email on your Stripe account, including spam — payouts pause until you respond. Full detail in Payouts & Timelines.

Sign-in problems

A staff member can't sign in. Confirm they're using the same Google or Apple account the invite went to. A different address is a different person to ForkLine. Re-invite the correct one — see Users & Roles.

Someone signed in but sees nothing. They're probably Pending — an Owner needs to grant access under Admin → Users.

A cashier is locked out of the register. Five wrong passcodes locks the account for five minutes. Wait, or reset the passcode. See Register Accounts.

Kitchen tablet keeps signing out. Install the app to the home screen — sessions persist much better there. See Kitchen Display.

Something looks wrong in the numbers

Revenue looks low. Unpaid pay-at-pickup orders aren't counted as revenue, and cancelled orders and unpaid register drafts are excluded. See The Dashboard.

A customer appears twice. Customers are matched by email where there is one and phone otherwise, so someone using different details online and in store can appear twice. See Customer Records.

A price is wrong and nobody knows why. Check the Activity Log — it records who changed what.

Before contacting support

Have ready:

  • Your restaurant name
  • The order number, if it's about an order
  • What you expected and what happened
  • Which device (the kitchen tablet, the register iPad, your laptop)
  • Anything from the steps above you've already ruled out

Where to go next

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